Are you looking to move to a new home and sell your house in Minneapolis? The costs associated with buying and selling a home are extensive. On top of necessary repairs and renovations, you might need to cover general house selling fees – unless you look for companies that buy houses in Minneapolis.
Still, you will need to find the cheapest way to sell a house if you only have a certain amount of funds saved up.
Luckily, we have done the research and put together this guide describing the cheapest way to sell a house in Minneapolis. Keep reading to learn all about it!
Research the Minneapolis Real Estate Market
By researching the Minneapolis real estate market, you’ll be able to find the cheapest way to sell a house. You can explore some of the recent Minneapolis real estate statistics on Redfin to learn all about the housing market and recent trends.
For example, Minneapolis housing prices have increased by 5.7 percent as of October 2021 compared to 2020. At this point, Minneapolis houses have been selling at a median price of $328,000.
However, homes are taking somewhat longer to sell in this particular housing market. In 2021, houses are selling after 22 days on average in Minneapolis as compared to 16 days the prior year. In October 2021, 1,105 homes were sold in this city compared to 1,409 from the previous year.
Essentially, the Minneapolis real estate market is very competitive at this point. As such, you can set the price of your home relatively high, which will reduce your overall selling costs.
Know Your House Selling Fees in Minneapolis
You will need to know and understand your house sale fees within Minneapolis before you can begin negotiating the fees with your real estate agent. Primarily, you will need to understand the real estate agent’s fees and pay structure.
Typically, a seller has to pay about 6% in fees, where half will go to the buyer’s agent, and the other half will go to the seller’s agent. For instance, on a $400,000 home, the seller has to pay a total of $24,000, giving $12,000 to each real estate agent.
Yet, brokers and real estate agents usually split those costs. As such, you’ll need to understand that the overall payment to your realtor is not as large as you might think.
The seller also has closing costs to consider, including the state deed tax, the settlement fee, the abstract or title search, the special assessment search, the name search, the lot location report, and the mortgage recording fee.
Have You Calculated for Repairs & Renovations?
To start calculating the cost of repairs and renovations, you’ll need to look at past estimates of your projects for similar renovations.
Next, it is essential to check the average costs of materials to create a general budget. Consider if you’re going to need any high-end items or materials, which you will need to include in your calculations.
Be sure to ask local renovation companies or handymen about average costs for your projects so you can include the labor costs. Construction projects often end up costing more than projected, so make sure you have enough room in your budget for unexpected expenses.
Of course, one way to cut back on these costs is to renovate or repair yourself. This method can save you quite a bit of money, but be sure you can do the projects safely and correctly before starting. You wouldn’t want to start from scratch and end up paying more!
Cheapest Ways to Sell a House in Minneapolis
There are key strategies you can use to sell a house cheaply in Minneapolis. For example, you can get a discount on the commission you’d pay to your real estate agent.
A survey from Redfin found 60 percent of all home sellers over the past year have received a discount on the commission they paid to their realtor. On average, the discount was 41 percent taken off the standard commission.
Furthermore, 46 percent of home-selling individuals obtained a rebate, refund, or a closing cost contribution. In this group, the average savings was as high as $3,693.
Keep in mind that home sellers have more clout than they believe. Homeowners have the negotiating power to reduce their prices upon selling their houses.
Tips for Lowering Costs When Selling a House
If you’re looking to lower costs and find cheap ways to sell your house in Minneapolis, there are six essential steps you’ll need to follow. These steps are:
- Hiring a qualified real estate agent
- Avoiding over-improving your home through renovations that make it look better than the rest of the neighborhood
- Doing your own home renovation projects as much as you can to save on labor costs
- Comparison-shopping before hiring someone for the home sale process, such as the real estate agent, photographer, handyman, lawyer, and home inspector
- Finding the right time to put your home on the market, such as the late spring and early summer before children start a new school year
- Looking over the home sale contract or offer very slowly and carefully to find any points that may be negotiable, including the selling price
Cutting Down Non-Essential Costs
You’ll want to eliminate any non-essential costs. As previously mentioned, one potentially non-essential cost is paying for a handyman if you can do the repairs yourself.
You will also want to make sure that you don’t renovate your home to the point where it looks like the best house in your neighborhood. Your home’s value will still be limited based on location. As such, you may actually lose money if you over-improve your home and set the sale price too high.
You also don’t need to pick the most pricey photographer, home inspection expert, or real estate lawyer. Be sure to comparison-shop to see which professional comes at the best price.
Do You Need a Realtor?
While a realtor can be helpful, you don’t always need one.
A realtor experienced in the Minneapolis housing market should know all the legal requirements that you’ll need to follow when selling a home. For example, experienced realtors in Minneapolis will ensure you have completed the required Truth in Sale of Housing (TISH) evaluation.
If you go the traditional route of selling a house, a real estate agent is essential. They can help you hold an open house, find potential home buyers, and help you decide whether to accept an offer or not. They can assist you with negotiating the final home sale price.
However, you don’t always need a realtor, especially if you consider alternative ways to sell a house.
Could You Sell to a Cash Home Buyer
There are clear benefits of selling a house for cash, such as avoiding the work of finding a real estate agent, scheduling home showings, hiring repairmen, and more. When you decide to sell to a cash home buyer, you can bypass this process entirely.
If you want to avoid realtor fees and lengthy real estate processes, you can opt to work with cash home buyers.
Luckily, you don’t need to look far. You’ll be glad to learn that we buy houses in Minnesota!
Conclusion
Now that you know many of the cheapest ways to sell a house in Minneapolis, you can go out and sell your home at a reasonable price while cutting some of the typical home sale costs.
Before you know it, you’ll have all the signed papers and be moving into your new home! Best of all, you’ll have more money in the bank.